You can only pick ten ultimate discs, of any format, when you’re stranded on the proverbial Desert Island. These must be discs the likes of which you simply could not live without.

You can choose from CDs or DVDs.

Here is my Desert Island Disc list, in something of a primary order:

1. PINK FLOYD: Wish You Were Here

My all-time favourite piece of music, bar none. It’s a threaded masterpiece that sounds as valuable and “modern” today as it did in 1975. An astounding linkage of sound and lyrics. I saw Pink Floyd live many times; I regret I never saw them perform this album.

2. KING CRIMSON: Lark’s Tongues In Aspic

My first foray into “unlearned” music. Robert Fripp is a guitar genius, though few recognize his merits. This album featured the finest iteration of Crimso. Released in 1973, I was witness to the first ever live American presentation of Larks at the Agora Theatre, in Columbus, Ohio. This is the concert in which drummer Bill Bruford took hits of oxygen from a bottle to continue his playing.

3. YES: Tales From Topographic Oceans

Reliving the 70s, am I? That would be a clear “Yes.” 1973’s TFTO expanded the borders of this band like never before. Lyrics, expansive and airy, moody synths, wondrous transitions, Yes embodied all the best aspects of what became known as ProgRock or “progressive rock.” The combination of Jon Anderson on vocals, Steve Howe on guitar, Rick Wakeman on keyboards, Chris Squire on bass and Alan White on drums (sorry, Bill) was unbeatable.

4. GENTLE GIANT: Free Hand

No one remembers these gents. But I do; certainly, having watched them in concert a number of times, GG managed to combine rock with blues, classical, jazz, Renaissance madrigals, a capella, and in time signatures to drive one crazy. Completely and utterly unappreciated, with amazing individual and collective musical skills. Please. Try this one album.

5. DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET: Time Out

Beyond description. Beyond music. Beyond their time. Signatures and otherwise. So far ahead of its time as to be considered played by aliens. Its prototypical piece? Take Five. Stellar. Perhaps even beyond stellar.

6. ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA: No Answer

Released in 1971, this album features the ubiquitous Roy Wood, a continuously amazing and multi-talented artist who became outshined by his contemporary, Jeff Lynne. Jeff took the road to more popular music, whilst Wood continued as the iconoclast. Lynne achieved multiple years of success helming ELO while Wood continued to expand his personal horizons. I admire Lynne for the popularity he achieved; I admire Wood for the boundaries he pushed.

7. BLACK SABBATH: Master of Reality

It is widely credited that Tony Iommi “invented” most every heavy metal riff known to Man and God. And I would second that thought. A left-handed guitarist, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring finger of his right hand in a sheet metal factory accident at the age of 17. Iommi then strung his guitars with extra-light strings (using banjo strings, which were of a lighter gauge than even the lightest guitar strings of the time) and wore plastic covers over his two damaged fingers. With Bill Ward on drums, who hulked over his set, Geezer Butler on bass (and his amazingly-rapid fingerstyle vs. plectrum, such as Chris Squire’s flatpick style of Yes) and the legendary John Michael (Ozzy) Osbourne on vocals, the album MOR cemented Sabbath as the bulwark of heavy metal.

8. BAND OF BROTHERS:

This DVD series originated by the Stephen Ambrose book needs to be watched by everyone who claims to be an American. We owe The Greatest Generation a debt that can, essentially, never be repaid. Imagine what those of Saving Private Ryan endured but for months and months and months.

9. GUSTAV HOLST: The Planets

Classical music that encompasses both old and new orchestrations. This surpasses the boring and the commonly-acknowledged. Incandescent.

10. CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: Cosmo’s Factory

Released in 1970, this was my very first purchased piece of rock vinyl that I can remember, and the beginning of my incredibly extensive vinyl — then CD — library. I’ve worked for years in radio, and my vinyl collection consists of at least 2,000 albums, whilst my CD collection duplicates this collection and, by itself, stands at over 3,500 individual albums.

Here are my ten Desert Island Discs, both in CD and DVD.

What might yours be?

Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

They’re not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

License? Control? UberRegierung?

It’s time to start paying more attention, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

Here are a few of the things Demorats are doing and wish to do for you in the future:

First, Demorats believe fellow Dem “moderates” are “brain dead“:

WASHINGTON (AP) – A key House liberal suggested Thursday that party moderates who’ve pushed for changes in health care legislation are “brain dead” and out for insurance company campaign donations.

Moderate Blue Dog Democrats “just want to cause trouble,” said Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who heads the health subcommittee on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Eating your own? Thanks, Demorats.

Iterations of ObamaKare are mandated to divulge extremely personal information about every American:

Section 431(a) of the bill says that the IRS must divulge taxpayer identity information, including the filing status, the modified adjusted gross income, the number of dependents, and “other information as is prescribed by” regulation. That information will be provided to the new Health Choices Commissioner and state health programs and used to determine who qualifies for “affordability credits.”

No privacy? Thanks, Demorats.

You don’t need an ID to vote, dead people are voting via ACORN, it’s heresy to suggest Illegal Invaders provide ID to acquire entitlements, yet a Demorat demands an ID prior to being able to ask a question at a townhall meeting.

Suppressing dissension? Thanks, Demorats.

Expanding the American presence in Afghanistan without actually accomplishing anything — and somehow managing to acquire Cindy Sheehan’s ire?

Thanks, Demorats.

The actual unemployment rate in America under our Mr Obama?

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday.

Helping to sink the American Worker? Thanks, Demorats.

Colorado Democratic Congresswoman Betsy Markey is a first termer in a GOP-leaning district. Last night Markey told an audience that Medicare recipients would have to give up some of their benefits under ObamaKare, and lectured the rest of us that we need to get used to losing medical benefits if ObamaKare passes:

“There’s going to be some people who are going to have to give up some things, honestly, for all of this to work,” Markey said at a Congress on Your Corner event at CSU. “But we have to do this because we’re Americans.”

Sacrificing and throwing under the bus those who contributed the greatest amount of taxes, ever, in the history of this nation? Because they’ve committed the heinous crime of getting old? Thanks, Demorats.

And under Socialized Medicine — such as ObamaKare proffers — here’s what you have to look forward to, America, via the UK:

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with ‘neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel’ treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

I suggest you read the entire, extended article. It is lengthy.

This is your future under ObamaKare. Thanks, Demorats.

And despite having called Mr Obama, Our Hero, a racist, Glenn Beck garners record ratings on FoxNews.

Thanks, Demorats.

This is a groundswell. A fomentation. And, Demorats, you’re about to be very, very surprised.

Rally now, True Conservatives. Rally now. The GOP can go to Hell. Rally now, True Conservatives.

Thanks, Demorats, for —seconds after his death — using Teddy Kennedy’s passing as a fulcrum for helping to pass ObamaKare. Despite, of course, as a Senator, Mr Kennedy had access to the finest federal healthcare imagineable in this nation. Healthcare that YOU, dear reader, will NEVER access in your finest fevered dreams.

Send $10 to defeat Demorat Harry Reid via Danny Tarkanian — otherwise known as Ten For Tark.

Want to defeat Medicare Markey — as noted above? Contribute to her opponent, Tom Lucero, here.

And if you didn’t quite understand my last post, I’ll hope this is more obvious:

The Obama administration on Tuesday acknowledged that Obamanomics, the dismal science of spending other people’s money as fast as possible, honed with ward bosses and union kingpins on Chicago’s South Side, has failed.

They did so, not in so many words and probably without knowing it, while hammering Americans with a devastating and demoralizing one-two blow — one a sucker punch, the other below the belt.

With the sycophants in the Obama press corps distracted while rubbing elbows with the Obamas and other rich folk on the Vineyard, the O Team threw their sucker punch: officially announcing that the federal budget deficit next year will be nearly 20% more than in their first forecast made just last May, and over the next ten years will be two trillion dollars more than they had predicted.

That’s two million million dollars more than Obama had forecast. Just 90 days ago.

Oops.

Even ballpark hunches should be closer than that.

Obama’s estimate of the ten-year federal deficit has increased almost 30% from his first quarterly forecast to his second. How much further off will it be in six months? In a year? By the end of his term?

Yet, this is the same genius who is now promising that Obamacare will be revenue neutral, that Medicare won’t be raided, and that seniors needn’t worry about how end-of-life care under a government imposed plan will be affected by Washington’s ability to pay.

“Revenue neutral“?

You’ve got to be kidding me.